Romance is a big seller, as are thrillers full of tension. Romantic suspense authors like Nora Roberts have the best of both genres. Readers have two themes to intrigue them - the interaction between hero and heroine and the fear that a villain will get one of them. With a very skillful writer, there's the fear that the villain will be one of them.
This is a new segment in the mass-produced romances that used to be called 'bodice rippers'. The main theme, which shows up practically on page one, is the strong attraction between a beautiful young girl and a generic male character. The recent twist is to have the inevitable misunderstanding complicated by a mystery. It does make things more interesting than the old boy-meets-girl, girl-runs-away plot.
Novelists with the stature of Nora Roberts offer their readers well-crafted stories. Characters are believable; in fact, they may become more real to fans than real-life public figures or celebrities. Roberts creates characters, plots, and settings that are so compelling that readers eagerly follow her trilogies and series. She never adds sketchy passages that serve only to advance the plot.
Roberts wrote strictly romances for years, but now she has a best-selling series written under the pseudonym of J. D. Robb. Her heroine here is not a librarian or a schoolteacher but a New York policewoman. The romantic interest is the detective's husband, and this skilled writer has made their on-going relationship the central theme of the series.
Of course, suspense does not always involve a crime being committed. Dorothy L. Sayers created Lord Peter Whimsey, a British nobleman who solves problems for family and country. After breaking many hearts, he eventually falls for a woman charged with murder, and the question of whether they will ever surmount the obstacles that separate them is tension enough for several books.
Another fine writer with a romantic figure as main character is Martha Grimes, whose handsome inspector Richard Jury falls in love often in the course of his investigations. Unfortunately, his fair ladies are either doomed, so full of self-doubt that they can barely function, or too diffident to cast the lures that would give Jury a clue. Some readers find this state of affairs annoying, but others are addicted to the man's complexity and eagerly await each new installment in the series.
Not all the good authors are women, either. Dick Francis wrote action books based on the world of thoroughbred racing. They are all mysteries, with a central character investigating dark plots among the aristocracy as well as the lower classes. Both worlds are expertly depicted, and the heroes narrowly escape death but never the mayhem that goes before it. However, some of his best books involve romance: Matt Shore falling for his Nancy or Sid Halley losing his first wife to his ambition to be leading steeplechase rider.
There's no need for readers to sacrifice their love of good writing when they look for mystery and romance. Many fine writers create memorable characters. It is not unusual to have a bestseller show up in the cinema and on television, . Millions of readers carry these men and women around in their heads and their hearts, little wisps of fantasy that liven up everyday doldrums.
This is a new segment in the mass-produced romances that used to be called 'bodice rippers'. The main theme, which shows up practically on page one, is the strong attraction between a beautiful young girl and a generic male character. The recent twist is to have the inevitable misunderstanding complicated by a mystery. It does make things more interesting than the old boy-meets-girl, girl-runs-away plot.
Novelists with the stature of Nora Roberts offer their readers well-crafted stories. Characters are believable; in fact, they may become more real to fans than real-life public figures or celebrities. Roberts creates characters, plots, and settings that are so compelling that readers eagerly follow her trilogies and series. She never adds sketchy passages that serve only to advance the plot.
Roberts wrote strictly romances for years, but now she has a best-selling series written under the pseudonym of J. D. Robb. Her heroine here is not a librarian or a schoolteacher but a New York policewoman. The romantic interest is the detective's husband, and this skilled writer has made their on-going relationship the central theme of the series.
Of course, suspense does not always involve a crime being committed. Dorothy L. Sayers created Lord Peter Whimsey, a British nobleman who solves problems for family and country. After breaking many hearts, he eventually falls for a woman charged with murder, and the question of whether they will ever surmount the obstacles that separate them is tension enough for several books.
Another fine writer with a romantic figure as main character is Martha Grimes, whose handsome inspector Richard Jury falls in love often in the course of his investigations. Unfortunately, his fair ladies are either doomed, so full of self-doubt that they can barely function, or too diffident to cast the lures that would give Jury a clue. Some readers find this state of affairs annoying, but others are addicted to the man's complexity and eagerly await each new installment in the series.
Not all the good authors are women, either. Dick Francis wrote action books based on the world of thoroughbred racing. They are all mysteries, with a central character investigating dark plots among the aristocracy as well as the lower classes. Both worlds are expertly depicted, and the heroes narrowly escape death but never the mayhem that goes before it. However, some of his best books involve romance: Matt Shore falling for his Nancy or Sid Halley losing his first wife to his ambition to be leading steeplechase rider.
There's no need for readers to sacrifice their love of good writing when they look for mystery and romance. Many fine writers create memorable characters. It is not unusual to have a bestseller show up in the cinema and on television, . Millions of readers carry these men and women around in their heads and their hearts, little wisps of fantasy that liven up everyday doldrums.
